Skill level of an automated sentry gun?

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Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

If you're looking for simple canonical answers to this question, Traveller: Interstellar Wars suggests a Complexity 4 program can function with skill-12, and each +1 to Complexity increases this by 1. Steampunk 2: Steam and Shellfire is a little more conservative, suggesting skill equal to the computer's DX, which is 8 + (Complexity/2).

This one looks very nice too!

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

If you're looking for simple canonical answers to this question, Traveller: Interstellar Wars suggests a Complexity 4 program can function with skill-12, and each +1 to Complexity increases this by 1. Steampunk 2: Steam and Shellfire is a little more conservative, suggesting skill equal to the computer's DX, which is 8 + (Complexity/2).

For what it's worth, Ultra-Tech sets the skills of computer-controlled devices at a certain level for their TL of introduction, and generally advances that by +1/TL. Thus a 'viper' round starts with Skill-13 at TL, and gets +1/TL, and thus has Skill-16 at TL12.

[CeeDub]

Originally Posted by Varyon

For erratic movement, the sentry gun will have some issues - while it can probably work out where you’ll be when the bullet arrives given your current velocity rather rapidly, that isn’t going to be where you actually are if you’re moving erratically. So long as your movement rate is high enough to allow you to move 0.5 yards in the time it takes the bullet to reach you (assume the program works out where to aim more or less instantly, and aiming occurs more or less instantly), I’d say Dodge is an option, and the sentry gun can’t leverage its impressive skill for Predictive Shooting.

I'm with you, but it's not really the velocity that let's you dodge a sentry turret (assuming the mechanism isn't wobbly or anything); how much to lead a target is trivial for a computer. It's the change in velocity. At 50 metres, a bullet would reach the target in an estimated 0.1 seconds. The question is, can you overcome enough of your own inertia that you'd change your predicted position 0.1 seconds from now by 0.5 metres?

I'm not dead-set against allowing a Dodge roll, but whether Dodging is allowed or not, I'd still rule that a sentry turret hits succeeds with its attack roll automatically if it has a clear shot.

We are, of course, assuming that the turret can identify the target as such and can accurately determine range and speed. Messing with these assumptions is, IMO, a more viable way to not get pumped full of hot lead.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

I'm not dead-set against allowing a Dodge roll, but whether Dodging is allowed or not, I'd still rule that a sentry turret hits succeeds with its attack roll automatically if it has a clear shot.

I wouldn't. Machines don't always work perfectly. Also, to what range would you allow an auto-hit? If the weapon is fully automatic, how many rounds of the burst should hit? How small a target can the weapon auto-hit?

It makes more sense to me to work out the bonuses the system gets from targetting devices, from accuracy (and if I were giving Acc bonuses immediately, I'd grant the device Gunslinger so there's some advantage to having the system take a little longer - most weapon systems that aim guns benefit from this), from All-out Attack and bracing (if it got to aim), and from rate of fire. Having done that, work out what range it would expect to 'always' hit a non-dodging person at, and give it sufficient skill to have a 16- at that range, etc.

Also, I would absolutely allow someone how knew they were about to be fired on a dodge, just as I would if they were about to be shot by a person.

Aside from anything else, simply declaring 'the sentry turret always hits' means you need some separate roll to determine margin of success for automatic fire, and to check for a critical, so why not use the combat rules that already exist for this?

[CeeDub]

Good points.

In that case, I would probably give a sentry gun Innate Attack with Cosmic (No Die Roll Required, +100%) and a skill between 10 and 13, depending on its quality. That way, target range and movement would still affect the turret's aim normally, but the turret still hits as long as its effective skill is 3 or higher.

Might also throw in Enhanced Tracking and Peripheral or 360° Vision.

Dodging allowed, of course. :)

Better?

P.S.: I sincerely hope I don't come across as obstinate or anything. We're all here to learn how to be better players and GMs.

[Rupert]

It occurs to me that while for some roles a sentry gun will be set up and programmed to aim at a point target (what we've been talking about), for other situations they might well be set up to provide area denial, centred on top of any movement/target they pick up.

For this latter task they'd be using Suppression Fire (B409-410), probably firing for several seconds to cover a bigger area, and likely putting only 5 shots into each 2-yard wide zone. The zone(s) would of course be behind the observed target, so they and any of their friends present would be inside the 'beaten zone'.